VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Portofino?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Kyoto for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Kyoto’s own page.

Choose Portofino for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Kyoto 15, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Portofino 36: Kyoto leads by 49 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Portofino 22: Kyoto leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Portofino 14: Kyoto leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Portofino 76: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Portofino 33: Kyoto leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Portofino 50: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Portofino 29: Kyoto leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Portofino 9: Kyoto leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Portofino 7: Kyoto leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Portofino 42: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Portofino.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Kyoto in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
225 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoPortofino

Where the figures come from

Kyoto's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Osaka.

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoPortofino
Official languageJapaneseItalian
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation51 m20 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoPortofino
City population1,463,723355
People per km²1,768142
Museums within 10 km7714
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Portofino somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.